Rejoicing In Heaven
Luke 15:7 tells us that there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. A baptismal service is a celebration on earth of a person’s decision to follow Jesus. It commemorates their repentance and faith and symbolically points to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; as the person is submerged in water, this symbolises the death of their old life, their death to self, and as they are brought up out of the water, this symbolises the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, His triumph over death and sin, and the new life that He then bestows to us.(Romans 6)
A baptismal service is therefore one of the most joyful services ever held in church, and we are thrilled to be holding such a service this afternoon at 5 p.m. We will be baptising Jade in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as Jesus commanded us to do and we will be celebrating with her the life-changing choice she has made to follow Jesus.
If you’ve never seen a baptism by full immersion, do come along to this service and find out more about following Jesus.
As with all true celebrations, we will be holding a buffet meal afterwards.
Getting the tank ready for the service
Stability in life
I’m not very good at balancing; I was 18 before I learned to ride a bike! I watch my grandchildren clamber, climb and balance on narrow beams with a sense of wonder, because I know I find such things immensely difficult.
Balance in life is equally difficult. It often feels like life is a rollercoaster. In Ps 107, the psalmist likens it to a storm-tossed sea: ‘They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away.’ (Ps 107:26) We experience great joys and great sorrows; we can feel that there is very little stability in life and consequently live with emotions that are ‘up and down’ on an almost daily basis.
But God is the stabilising factor in life. Just as a child learns to ride a bike often by starting with additional stabilising wheels, so we find the love, faithfulness and presence of God with us gives us the stability we need to ‘ride the waves‘ of the storms. As Rend Collective put it, ‘Your love will keep me stable.’ (‘True In The Light’) As Garry puts it in his ‘Yo-yo’ children’s song, ‘Jesus gives stability.’
Therefore we have hope.
Baptismal Service
We are thrilled to be holding a baptismal service on Saturday 17 September at 5 p.m. A baptismal service is a sign of new life in Christ and we love listening to testimonies of how God has worked in people’s lives in the present day – as Ps 107:2 says, ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story!’
Jade Edmonds will be telling her story on Saturday and we will be coming together to see her baptised (fully immersed in water in our portable baptistery). We’ll also be having a buffet meal together afterwards.
If you’ve never seen an adult baptism, do please come along and find out more about what it means to follow Jesus! All welcome.
God’s Miraculous Provision – For Us!
God’s miraculous provision may well be in the Bible, but can it really be true that God provides for us in miraculous ways today?
We may well fail to see God’s hand in provision because of the many mundane ways in which He works (and the fact that He chooses to use people to give in practical ways that bless others.) He often does extraordinary things from ordinary people! But as a church, we can certainly testify that God provides!
When we wanted to move to Market Street, we had £7,500 in the bank and the building on Market Street was up for sale at £160,000. We pledged all we had to the penny (which raised a few eyebrows at the estate agent’s!) and applied for a grant from Coalfields Regeneration Trust. Many would say that they gave us the money, not God, but the manner in which we received money from them (not once, but twice, having to return the grant initially at the end of March because the sale had been delayed past the end of the financial year) definitely was not ‘normal’. The fact that the Methodist Church had a buyer willing to pay an additional £20,000 soon meant that it looked as though the building would never be ours, but God had other ideas.
It took months, but eventually the other buyer backed out… we were asked if we were still interested… CRT gave us the grant back without any further questions… and we were loaned £20,000 by the local Methodist circuit … and all this showed us that provision comes just in time! Moreover, we were able to pay the £20,000 loan back within two years without selling our previous building (that took longer than we expected to sell, but God provided the finances for us to repay the loan anyway!) We have seen God’s provision all the time and can testify that God does indeed provide! Just recently, we received another grant of just over £1500 from Coalfields Regeneration Trust to help run our Parent & Toddler group. God is faithful in so many ways; He is interested in our day-to-day needs and works to meeet these.
The Bible is unequivocal in its declarations that God will provide for His people, and that the revelation of the Lord as Jehovah Jireh to Abraham all those years ago is as relevant today as it was then. Whether our need is financial, practical, emotional, spiritual or physical, the Lord will provide all we need. His grace is sufficient for us.
God’s Miraculous Provision
Tonight, Julie looked at the subject of God’s miraculous provision, reminding us all of Paul’s words in Phil 4:19: ‘And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.’ She looked at three examples of God’s provision, two of which seem clearly miraculous and one which seems quite mundane, reminding us that we should perhaps focus more on the fact of God’s provision than on the means!
In 1 Kings 17, we see how the prophet Elijah’s word about no rain meant that he himself was affected by the subsequent drought and famine. His faithfulness in proclaiming God’s word meant he saw God’s faithfulness in providing for him, first of all by sending ravens twice a day to bring him bread and meat and then by replenishing a widow’s stock of flour and oil so that it did not run out! God worked in miraculous ways to provide the essential food Elijah required, and Jesus encouraged us to pray too for daily bread and trust God to provide for our material needs (see Matt 6:25-34).
In 2 Kings 7, during another famine, Elisha spoke out about how God would bring an end to the siege of Samaria and how He intervened to make the Arameans believe they were being attacked and thus fled from the city, leaving food, drink, silver, gold and other items free for Israel to take. This was discovered by lepers (the outcasts of society) who witnessed miraculous provision from God.
Yet the book of Ruth shows us that provision can come in more mundane, ordinary ways and that God’s law made provision for the foreigner, poor and needy (see Lev 19:9-10), Ruth, from Moab, has suffered bereavement, but chosen to return to Israel with her mother-in-law. In one of many ‘God-incidences’, she gleans food from the field of Boaz, who ‘just happens’ to be a relative of Elimelek, her father-in-law. Ruth saw God’s provision and protection in the person of Boaz. Not only did Boaz treat her kindly and generously, as a close relative of Elimelek, he took on the role of guardian-redeemer and ultimately married her. (Ruth 3-4) Ruth and Boaz had a son, Obed, who became the grandfather of David, probably the greatest king of Israel. Ruth saw God’s provision and protection in every area of her life, and yet the means of this provision must have seemed so very ordinary to her. This is a reminder that we can be the means of God’s provision to others and that God wants to use us to bless others (see 2 Cor 8-9).
God’s generosity and kindness to us are seen in His provision for us. Our God truly will meet our needs as we trust in Him.
Giving Everything
This morning, Dave spoke from Mark 12:41-44, a brief story about the small offering put in by a widow. This widow may not have given much in financial terms, but she gave all she had. Many speak about tithing income (i.e. giving 10% of your income to God), but she gave everything she had; in her poverty, she still honoured God.
Jesus saw this and appreciated the heart and love of this woman. He too came to earth and surrendered the glory of heaven to take on human flesh and die for us. He demonstrates how God has taken the initiative in salvation, how He gave Himself willingly for our salvation.
Giving can be a contentious subject, but ultimately the God who gave Himself gave everything for us and wants us to give our all for Him. This may not neceesarily be a financial giving, but the sacrifice of a life dedicated to God is something very precious to God. Jesus noticed this widow’s giving. Nothing we give to God is unseen by Him. He sees and appreciates all we give.
